I spoke with my father about the iris and the the hostas. I told him we split the clumps up into fist size pieces. He told me that we should expect 90% survival on both. He said not to worry about finding the little nodes. He also mentioned that each clump of iris is worth about $10, and the about same for the hosta. Which means we have a lot of value in doing this work of splitting the clumps up. Maybe $500! Just for the sake of mentioning it, we stored the clumps of iris and hostas in the closet in aaron's office, and then another stash in the basement in the min-kitchen. Dry dark places. Should keep them from rotting.
Before it gets too cold we need to replant, and before we replant, we need a plan. I need to get some accurate measurements.
I checked out a couple of websites:
The Hosta Network
Growing Iris Ohio State University
which tells you how to plant them-- basically the tops of the clumps need to be about level with the surrounding soil. I imagine turning the soil underneath and adding compost and a bit of bone meal or similar organic fertilizer will be plenty sufficient. Though I did read iris doesnt do so well in less than full sum, and our main planting place is fairly shady -- so we should probably plant the iris in the front part of that particular patch. and a few in other select sunny spots (a few clumps at the corners of the shed?).
I imagine we will be giving many clumps of iris away!

Also, last weekend we started a new batch of compost-- lots of pumpkins.

A fairly productive time last Saturday--we pulled all of the plants from the summer, along with the beans and the bean fence. The only things still in the ground at this point are: one cabbage, one broccoli, two rows of peas, and the garlic and shallots.

We dug up both of the hosta varieties and separated the roots as best we could. They were packed very tightly together so that it was nearly impossible to differentiate between them. We shook off the soil, split them into small bunches and stored them in brown paper lunch sacks until the next opportunity to put them in the new spot. We did the same with the irises. At first glance we estimated maybe a couple of hundred individual plants were in those stands, but once we began digging we realized the number could easily have been twice that. Those stands have probably been there for 15 years or more. We only got through about half of them, did a similar deal as with the hostas, and will replant later. (Belle has dibs on a few though.) Tomorrow will be fair weather (low 50s and sunny), so I may work the soil where we plan to transplant.

I will also spend an hour over in AS&T with the scanner sometime this week, so I can finally get some pictures up.